MARCH 23: The Rockets have officially signed Augustin for the remainder of the season, the team announced today (via Twitter).
MARCH 22: The Rockets are signing free agent point guard D.J. Augustin for the rest of the season, agent Raymond Brothers tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link). It will be a minimum-salary contract, tweets Kelly Iko of The Athletic.
It will be Augustin’s second stint with the Rockets. He was acquired by Houston in a March 2021 trade and spent nearly a year with the organization before being waived in February 2022 at the trade deadline. He finished last season with the Lakers, but has been out of the NBA so far in 2022/23.
A reliable backup point guard for much of his career, Augustin has averaged 9.5 points and 3.9 assists per game in 976 career regular season appearances (23.4 MPG). At age 35, he may not have a whole lot left in the tank, but the Rockets are presumably adding him to their roster to serve as a veteran mentor for their young players rather than expecting him to play big minutes down the stretch.
The Rockets have two openings on their standard 15-man roster, so no corresponding moves will be necessary to make room for Augustin.
In fact, since it has nearly been two weeks since Willie Cauley-Stein‘s 10-day contract with Houston expired, the team was just about due for a mandatory roster move in order to get back to the NBA minimum of 14 players on standard contracts. Teams can only dip below that minimum for up to two weeks at a time.
Augustin’s exact rest-of-season salary will depend on when he officially signs his contract, but he’ll earn $16,700 per day.
This could be a game changer
Odd they wouldnt pick someone young with some upside.
They have enough young players with upside at this point.
Yes, they couldve signed someone to a multi year deal with team option at minimum salary for next season. But who’s out there they might want to keep or who would prove his value in 10 games to have trade value?
It’s still a chance to get someone they’d want to take a look at, vs someone who is definitely not someone they want to take a look at for the same money.
The need an adult in the room.
He’s a mentor at this point …….
It’s not odd that they would pick up a veteran presence. The organization has been under fire for not having vets on the team all season. Rockets cannot stay under 14 players for longer than 2 weeks before it is mandatory to fill the empty roster spot. Thus the signing of Augustine.
It’s certainly odd they do it now.
“Rockets cannot stay under 14 players for longer than 2 weeks before it is mandatory to fill the empty roster spot. Thus the signing of Augustine.”
We know that. It’s still an odd signing.
No such thing as coincidence brother. Likely bigger forces at work here…
I think Rockets are going to go big this off-season. They may trade a few young guys in a sign and trade move. They could use an upcoming star and defense. They have the cap flexibility to sign veterans and taking a major leap by adding a top notch veteran. It has to be someone who can please defense and score some buckets when needed. I am thinking potential power forward/center or SG (yes, takes Green out of the mix and ok if he can be traded for someone of great value).
They just too Green second lmao they aren’t trading him
Ytf y
$16.7 k a day is not too shabby I must say. If only that was extrapolated over 365 days or so…
That’s still about $150,000 for a month of “work”.
Finally a veteran signed
The Rockets should bring TyTy back and insert him as the point guard. Jalen and Porter should be the wings in a three guard – two forwards starting lineup. Porter defers too often to Jalen which results in too many bad shots and turnovers.